CK AR YOU

Title: Hidden Bodies
Series: You
Author: Caroline Kepnes
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: February 23, 2016
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 448

Still mourning the loss of his girlfriend, bookstore employee Joe Goldberg falls for a co-worker who mysteriously vanishes, prompting a cross-country move to Los Angeles to search for her.

WrensReads Review:

First, I want to say that I think it is important to take a nice, 10-book at least break from You before you dive into Hidden Bodies. Even though it is the same Joe that we grew to love and understand, the story has a different vibe to it. I believe that is a big reason why some people don’t feel they liked this book as much as the last book. It is in a completely different setting and Joe’s personality is growing and his sanity is unraveling.

Joe gets punked by Amy ~~McAdams~~ McAdam. She stole from him and made a fool of him. So he is on the hunt to find her and put her in her place: 6 feet under the ground. But… Los Angeles is a completely different animal than what he is used to. Plus, when someone is a ghost on social media and changes her burner phones once every two weeks, it is hard enough to find them. Put them in a very large city with wannabe actors/actresses, and it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

“The real horror of my life is not that I’ve killed some terrible people. The real horror is that the people I’ve loved didn’t love me back.”

What is heartbreaking about these books is the fact Joe just wants to have an epic love. All he really wants is to feel like the IT couple in a movie and have a life with someone; but he sees all of his failed relationships as lies instead of lessons, betrayal instead of the general way of life and does seem himself at fault for any of it.

But, come on, isn’t that why we love him?

Joe still has his morphed way of thinking and his quick to anger temper. This book was unpredictable. Though I didn’t really prefer the ending of this book and the route it took, I still am craving the third book and wish the Kepnes would bless me with a copy.

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Title: You
Series: You
Author: Caroline Kepnes
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Release Date: June 16, 2015
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 448

“[A] beautifully crafted thriller that will give you chills.” (People magazine) From debut author Caroline Kepnes comes You, one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2014, and a brilliant and terrifying novel for the social media age. When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card. There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting. As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder. A terrifying exploration of how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation, debut author Caroline Kepnes delivers a razor-sharp novel for our hyper-connected digital age. You is a compulsively readable page-turner that’s being compared to Gone Girl, American Psycho, and Stephen King’s Misery.

WrensReads Review:

“The only thing crueler than a cage so
small that a bird can’t fly is a cage so
large that a bird thinks it can fly.”

I can’t tell you how absolutely horrified I am to say that I felt compassion towards someone who stalked, killed (multiple times) and just did all around creepy stuff. Caroline Kepnes literally sticks you instead of Joe’s head and you kind of feel bad for him at some points… and then at other points you realize “wow, he’s actually a lunatic.”

You have to listen to the audio book. If you ever have watched the show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” you will automatically realize Santino Fontana (Greg Serrano) is the voice of Joe. Then you will imagine Joe looking like Santino and then you will never be able to look ag Santino again.

But boy, does he do an absolute seamless job on this narration. I’m so happy I saw that he does the next one because my LAURD he was way too good at this.

I had sworn off books in the format of second person because it completely and utterly creeped me out. If you don’t know, second person is kind of like a letter (this sentence is in second person). You use the word “you” a lot because you are talking towards someone. So, in this instance, we were Beck (the girl Joe stalks/obsesses over/is in love with/is in lust with/is literally nuts about).

So, imagine my surprise when Kepnes whispers in my ear (metaphorically) “shhh… It’ll be okay. You are supposed to be creeped out when reading my book” and I pick it up and kind of get obsessed with it?

Joe is beyond obsessed with how perfect he is. He is so smart and he is so thoughtful and he is just the greatest boyfriend in the world. BUUUUUTTTTTT….

Don’t worry though, he does go to therapy eventually.

Though, maybe not for the reasons one would usually go to therapy.

I read this with my book club The Cheerful Wednesdays, and one girl was like “this is creeping me out. If I wasn’t reading this with you guys I would DNF” and other girl was like “this is amazing but it’s ruining my life” and then me and my friend Day were like “this is the best thing to ever happen to us in the month of October can it never end?”

It really depends on what you like if you are going to like this book.

I like super creepy, super real stuff. I loved this book.